Lifestyle
Rethinking Education
Pondi Road
Sunday, March 22, 2009
"Will this be on the test, Miss?" I had asked Campion English teacher Mrs Eaton-Smith. She smiled broadly and shot back, "Yes, it is on the test of Life," then walked off.
At that time this 16-year-old did not appreciate her facetious response but now, some 25 years later, whenever I quote some apt Shakespearean passage or recall some poem Eaton-Smith had us memorise, I think to myself, "Oh, this would have amused her." I hope wherever she is, she lives in the abundance of life that she gave me.
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| How have various cultures coped with the issue of Death and what may or may not happen afterwards? What are the rituals that govern how a body is treated. An educated person should know what all the major religions and cultures believe about Death currently and historically. There is no substitute for informed opinions. William de Lefwich Dodge: The Death of Minnehaha. |
There is a world of difference between being literate, being job-ready and being educated. Unfortunately, the distinctions have been muddled in recent times. Being literate signifies the ability to read, write and count. Job-ready means having the skills required for a particular job coupled with an ability to complete tasks in a timely manner. Being educated is a different thing entirely.
To be educated is to have some familiarity with ostensibly useless subjects like History, Geography, Literature, Science and the Arts for no other purpose than a desire to be informed about human life. Literacy and job preparedness are required to live, but education gives life its deeper meaning and allows a fuller participation in civil and political discourse.
In the last 30 years the European Canon has come under attack as a continued imperialist hold on the international mind. When I was at Campion in the seventies, Caribbean literature and history were just creeping into the syllabus. This was a grotesque imbalance which has finally been corrected. There is now full-fledged celebration of our own peoples, histories and works in most of our secondary schools. What was never in question, however, is how we organised subjects for learning. The high school education remains organised around subject silos like History, Geography, Literature, etc. These silos are largely the same as the "departments" you encounter in most universities. This might be misguided.
There is a growing disconnect between these subjects and most people's real lives. The question of "job relevance" keeps popping up and is actually marginalising education. There is a push from all quarters towards making students more test-ready and job-ready. If current trends continue, the next generation of parents will just decide what they want their child to be and then tee everything up to pass the requisite tests to get there. But to borrow from Mrs Eaton-Smith, what about the test of Life?
Let me argue that we should make the Humanities relevant, not by teeing them up for job readiness but by reorganising the curricula according to relevant life themes that can hold a child's interest. With the explosion of information from so many varied sources, there is an urgent need for a set of organising themes which connect these disparate topics back to people's lives and their beliefs. Subjects (history, geography, literature, etc) seem an arcane way to organise 'thought' except for those looking to delve deeply into these particular subjects. Under the current educational paradigm, too much is lost on the way from the classroom into the real world where so much of what students learn seems inapplicable.
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| A study of Work, Tools and Technology could look at the evolution from manual to industrial labour or the work ethic across various cultures. Peter Brueghel's Harvesters. |
There are about a dozen themes that have obsessed all cultures and all peoples in one way or another. While our answers have varied, the topics are the same, suggesting that these themes are at the core of the human experience. A tentative list of themes would include 'The Origins of the Universe', 'Representations of God', 'Food and Nature', 'The Individual and the Common Good', 'Racial Differences and the Other', 'Gender Identity and Sexual Relations', 'Marriage and Family', 'Civil Life and Political Systems', 'Ageing and Death', 'Art and Beauty', and 'Work, Tools and Technology'. I would argue that these may be better organising principles for teaching high school instead of the traditional History and Geography, etc.
Explicitly or implicitly, everyone has an opinion on each of these themes.
Everyone is aware of their own society's beliefs on these issues. What is less common is knowledge of how other cultures and other eras have grappled with these topics. How do they think about it? What are their norms? Why do they think the way they do? How has this thinking evolved? How might any of this inform our own view? We should actively throw light on our own fallibility in order to grow.
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| Beauty is culturally defined. A multi-cultural look at beauty could help students see beyond the parochial lens of American television. |
"Geography" and "History" are dull to the average student largely because of the lack of personal context. However, if we take the topic "Marriage and Family" or "Food and Nature" and explore how these have evolved in different cultures at different times, then through this lens the knowledge becomes personally applicable. Will I rethink my diet based on what the Chinese eat? Can I learn some useful parenting techniques from the Indians? Kids should be shown multiple lenses through which to view the world so they can begin the task of constructing their own.
When you look at 'The Origin of the Universe' there are so many magnificent creation stories to compare and contrast. Did the God of Abraham's Word bring the Universe into existence or was it the nocturnal emissions of an Egyptian god, or did the universe exist from time immemorial with a slow-change evolutionary process?
'Representations of God' could tackle the history of polytheism and monotheism. Why did early man have many gods and what conceptual leap led to the rise of monotheism? And within monotheism, how active is God in the day-to-day affairs of man? Is he/she interfering or watching from a distance as the human drama unfolds? Different cultures have responded in vastly different ways to these questions. Greek gods were made in man's image and they had all the petty jealousies and rivalries that humans have. Christianity made man the imperfect reflection of God's perfect image. Others say that God is the Great Mother Nature who has no special eye for us but loves all life she creates. Here would be the opportunity to read many of the world's great religious texts and look at religious art.
In 'Food and Nature', we could explore the fact "only a third of people in the world eat with knives and forks, a third eat with chopsticks and a third eat with their hands." (travel guru Rick Stevens) How did our foods, preparations and dining rituals arise? Why did warm countries end up with spicy foods and cold countries end up with bland ones? How do farming techniques differ? How has refrigeration changed the nature of what we eat when?
In 'Gender Identity and Sexual Relations,' how have the relationships between men and women evolved? What is considered a good man or a good woman in different cultures? What conditions drove a matriarchal vs patriarchal vs gender-neutral societal configurations? What are the prevailing norms and taboos across cultures and time periods? What seems fixed (taboo against incest) and what seems varied (number of partners; age when virginity lost, rights of women, rights of gays)? Here would be the opportunity to read DH Lawrence, the Marquis De Sade and study the evolution of women's rights.
In 'Marriage and the Family,' kids could study cultures where marriage was an institution for the preservation of resources and find out that marriage for love, which seems completely normal to us now, is actually a relatively new phenomenon. As notions of the family evolve so too will the institution of marriage. What are the underlying belief structures that support one view of marriage vs another? Is Jamaica a polygamous society masquerading as a monogamous one? The lip service to "one man-one woman" contradicts the reality on the ground.
In 'Ageing and Death', students could see how the elderly are revered in Asian and African cultures while reviled in the American one. In Jamaica we are of two minds where we are just as likely to discard the elderly as we are to embrace them. This may be the mixing of our African heritage of large close-knit families playing out against the backdrop of the American media's obsession with youthfulness. History, geography, science and religious beliefs all come into play in the exploration of this theme.
'Work, Tools and Technology' is an opportunity to discuss topics as varied as the evolution from manual to intellectual labour, the industrial revolution and differences in the work ethic. Why do the Chinese labourers come to Jamaica and outwork us every time? A study of China is immediately informative to our own context as we think about work.
'Art and Beauty' would allow for the exploration of different standards of male and female beauty. From the bound feet of 18 and 19th-century Chinese women, to the elongated necks of the Burmese tribal women, to Degas' plump nudes, to Hollywood's anorexic waifs and ghetto fab gals of flab. Big-belly Arabs and Africans vs Ancient Greeks, the gay aesthetic and the modern gym-chiselled body. What is considered beautiful in Jamaica? Does it differ by class?
By peeping outside our own echo chamber we soon realise that there is no "that's just the way it is". Human thought and human life are ever-evolving activities. We should actively encourage our children to seek out varied views. Cast a wide eye for knowledge and behaviours beyond the parochial prisms of the Seventh-day Adventists, upper-class St Andrew mores, American television or dancehall vibes. These are not the only modes of living and each in one way or another hinders our development.
By anchoring the high school education along the lines of Themes of Life, instead of traditional subjects, we would keep the information relevant to children's lives. We should understand how a range of societies have approached these eternal themes. There are things we can learn, and things we can discard. But above all, we should strive to know. Beyond being literate, beyond being job-ready, there is still a wonderful thing called being educated.
How have various cultures coped with the issue of Death and what may or may not happen afterwards? What are the rituals that govern how a body is treated. An educated person should know what all the major religions and cultures believe about Death currently and historically. There is no substitute for informed opinions. William de Lefwich Dodge: The Death of Minnehaha.
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